In the News

September 20, 2016 | The last-minute pleas for donations seems to have paid off (literally): The committee organizing the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this year raised $65.7 million, more than was given for each of the previous two powwows: In 2012, the Tampa host committee raised $55.2 million, while 2008’s St. Paul festivities attracted about $61.3 million. The…

August 26, 2015 | Ten government watchdog groups have called on House Ethics Committee Chair Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Ranking Member Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) to release the Office of Congressional Ethics’ findings regarding all-expense-paid trips to Azerbaijan taken by 10 members of Congress in 2013, according to a Wednesday press release. Earlier this month, the Ethics Committee dropped its own…

January 6, 2015 | Seven years after President George W. Bush signed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) into law and then-Sen. Barack Obama, (D-Ill.) declared it to be “the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate,” a joint analysis by the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics suggests the effort may have misfired. A key…

February 22, 2013 | Politicians watching the Oscars this weekend of course will be seeing stars, just like the rest of us. But many of them -- Democrats, at least -- may see something much more alluring: dollar signs. Of the 51 actors, directors and producers nominated for the six most-watched categories, 25 nominees or their spouses have contributed to a political candidate or cause since 1990, nearly all of them Democratic. Most supported Obama either in 2008 or 2012, or both. And "Lincoln" is the money-and-politics blockbuster of the year.

February 1, 2013 | NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the top brass of the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens tilt Republican, though not dramatically. The same goes for the extremely well-funded NFL Gridiron PAC.

August 11, 2011 | The top six industries donating to the Obama Victory Fund so far this year are exactly the same as the six industries that gave the most to the Obama Victory Fund during the entire 2008 election cycle, according to the Center's analysis.

May 23, 2011 | The Columbia Journalism Review this week highlighted the journalism of OpenSecrets.org as part of its News Frontier Database, describing OpenSecrets.org staff as producing "exhaustive reporting on money in politics."

May 20, 2011 | Money continues to flow into the special election in New York's 26th Congressional District in the western part of the state. With the district's Election Day just four days away, political groups are making their last media buys to influence voters, sending out last-minute mailings and ramping up get-out-the-vote operations.

May 2, 2011 | In all, 43 different companies, organizations and special interest groups last year employed at least three former congressmen as registered federal lobbyists, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

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